Follow up on my previous post; multigrain pan bread made with 6 different types of flour, I wanted to find out the true flavour profile of mixed flour alone without the distraction of seeds and grains. This week’s bake was the result of that curiosity. The multigrain pan bread was really flavoursome, which I think was a result of tasty grains and seed mixtures. I also like to think that the flour mixture contributed to the bread’s exceptional taste as well. So, I set out to bake with just the same flour combination to find out.

I also upped the flour mixture to seven, by adding corn meal into the mix. That’s all flour types in my pantry. Actually, there was one type of flour that got missed out, Italian Tipo 00 flour! Never mind, next time. Seven different flour types in the recipe were bread flour (64%), whole wheat flour (15%), rye flour (5%), durum flour (5%), corn meal (polenta flour) (5%), rice flour (3%) and soy flour (3%). I also included toasted wheat germs (can’t help myself with my favourite) at 2.5% in the recipe.

The bread was lovely, chewy and flavoursome, with pronounced acidity (from mixed flour starter). However, I still couldn’t tell the flavour difference of this 7-type mixed flour bread from all-wheat sourdough. I made sourdough with 20% polenta flour (corn meal) before and the flavour was changed noticeably with natural sweetness and creaminess from the corn. One noticeable difference was crumb colour. It had lovely yellow tone, possibly from soy flour and corn meal.

crumb comparison with Vermont Sourdough

If you're curious to find out about the mixed flour yourself, full post and recipe can be found here.

Comments

excellent post Sue!. I've been thinking a while ago that I should use all the flour I have in my closet, the ones that I don't usually use, before they expire. I have oat flour, wheat bran, rice flour, spelt, whole wheat flour, buckwheat, AP flour... that's all, I think. Your post came right on time, and spare me of trouble of searching for a recipe. :)

I love this kind of baking - throw things in and see what happens. Who needs books and recipes? Of course your baking skills helped turn this into a great success. Beautiful loaves and wonderful crumb! -Varda

Experimenting with bread is fun. I was just telling my husband that baking bread is the ideal project for me. Every week I change something in the recipe, and after baking it discover something else I want to change next week. Nevertheless, each week the bread is both tasty and good to eat.

It's not too surprising to me that the recipe above tastes largely like wheat bread. It is 84% wheat flours of various types. That is not that much higher than the 80% in the 20% polenta bread, but all the other grains are present at 5% or less.

However, I still couldn’t tell the flavour difference of this 7-type mixed flour bread from all-wheat sourdough.

You probably would be able to tell the difference between the two on a side-by-side taste test, but I agree with you, if the percentages are very small they are not going to contribute much in the way of flavour to the final loaf. The only exception to this, I think, is rye. Even 5% rye can make a significant difference to the flavour of a loaf. And now that I think of it, 5% whole wheat can also make a significant difference especially if it is included in the preferment. Nice to see you experimenting, Sue. Lovely crumb.

Hello Sue,I so admire the consistently-beautiful crumb you achieve with your loaves :^)I'll keep this loaf of yours in mind...there are a lot of different bags of flour on the go in my kitchen at the moment!:^) from breadsong

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